The Kiel Annual Meeting will be virtual, not hybrid as originally hoped. At present, the COVID-19 pandemic is still unpredictable and whilst we are hoping that borders within Europe will reopen during the summer months, there is yet no guarantee that all attendees will be able to travel freely. Please find more information here.
An important event during the last days of April was the re-run of the 2020 Annual Membership Business Meeting. The 2020 AMBM, originally to be held on 28 August 2020 online, was annulled by the decision of the EAA Executive Board due to the technical inability to count the actual quorum in the virtual space. For this reason, and to maintain the accountability and transparency of EAA procedures, the EAA repeated the annulled 2020 AMBM and voted again on the important documents that needed to be approved or adopted. This was followed by per rollam voting available to all Full Individual members. To avoid confusion, per rollam is a method of decision making ‘by the letter’, by correspondence, in this case by digital correspondence.
In Kiel, the AMBM will obviously also be digital - members should take the opportunity to hear how their money is spent, how the EAA is represented, and help make decision about these and other EAA actions.
We have reprinted the 2020 Statement on Archaeology and Gender in this issue. It was proposed by Maria Mina, Laura Coltofean-Arizancu, Bisserka Gaydarska, Doris Gutsmiedl-Schümann, Uroš Matić and Enrique Moral de Eusebio, all active members of the AGE (Archaeology and Gender in Europe) community, and finally endorsed by the EAA during the AMBM re-run.
We are happy to introduce Bettina Schulz Paulsson’s new ERC Stating Grant project NEOSEA ‘Neolithic Seafaring and Maritime Technologies Shaped a New World of Megalithic Societies (4500-2500 cal BC)’. The newsletter is an excellent tool to make larger projects relevant to a wider European audience known to our members.
This issue ends with an obituary for Don Henson, a leader in archaeological public outreach and education in the UK. We also mark the passing of Judith Roberts, wife of Chris Scarre and an EAA family member for many years. Judith was behind the Antiquity booth for many EAA Annual Meetings, and we mourn her passing.
The TEA summer issue has a deadline of 1 July 2021. As usual, please send all items you wish to see published in the newsletter to tea@e-a-a.org. We look forward to hearing from you.
Roderick B. Salisbury and Katharina Rebay-Salisbury